Teaching Signals to Students: a Tool for Visualizing Signal, Filter and DSP Concepts

Abstract: Students at Uppsala University have for some years been given the opportunity to take courses in subjects directly, or indirectly, related to the fields of signal processing and signal analysis. According to the directors of these courses, a considerable number of students are recurringly having difficulties grasping different concepts related to this field of study. This report covers a tool that easily allows teachers to visualize and listen to different manipulations of signals, which should help students get an intuitive understanding of the subject. Features of the system include multiple kinds of analog filters, sampling with variable settings and zero-order hold reconstruction. The finished system is flexible, tunable and modifiable to the teachers every need, making it usable for a wide variety of courses involving signal processing. The system meets its requirements even though individual components’ results de- viate slightly from ideal values.